Why is there so much hatred in America? OK, this is an essay question, I tried to make

[RKP5637]

it a poll but it got complicated too fast, too many variables. I blame a lot of it on 7x24 hate radio/tv/internet, right wing religion and over the top capitalism of win at any cost and little win/win.

What does DU think?

[Amak8]

1. Our original sin.

Slavery. Race.

Think of other advanced countries: Europe, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Japan, Canada. They treat their poor very well. They don't have our scars.

Look at states that had slavery in 1860 and states that vote republican. It makes no sense for poor whites in those states to vote for elitist policies, but they do.

[RKP5637]

5. That, is an excellent analysis / root cause. n/t

[hfojvt]

11. lots of red states never had slavery

North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada.

Further, supposed Red states are not the only places where people vote for Republicans. Check out this map of Congressional elections in 2008, which was not a good year for Republicans. See all the red in Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, California, upstate New York, Washington, Orgeon, and, of course, that epitome of the deep south - Alaska. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:2008_House_elections.svg

Some of it, though, may be the legendary American dream. Which encourages people to grab as much as they can. As everybody, or most Americans, try to scramble and claw their way to the top, this competition causes anger.

[RKP5637]

20. Very interesting! Thanks!!! n/t

[Missycim]

35. You ever look

at the scars Japan has or Europe?


The worst events of the last 200 years either happened there or were started there (slavery)

Please when American bashing take the blinders off please.

[Archae]

2. I agree with you.

[B Calm]

3. Predatory Capitalism is evil

[RKP5637]

6. That, certainly does keep people clawing all over each other for success/survival and is

bound to create a lot of animosity.

[woo me with science]

22. Yup, and the divisions are also purposely fed and fomented by the corporate media.

We are divided into red and blue opposing teams and kept at each others' throats on a range of social issues that the corporate one percent could not care less about....so that we will focus on the differences between the parties rather than their steady bipartisan cooperation in the areas that DO matter to the one percent: economics, wars, and the police state.

[RKP5637]

23. I often wonder how far the country is going to continue to divide geographically. For example,

I now have a list of states/areas in my mind where I would never work, live or visit. I never used to have that ... I was comfortable pretty much anyplace I went, of course knowing there were some areas I would not want to be ... but that list has expanded. I imagine others well might have similar thoughts.

Where I live now used to be moderate, but now is on this far right teabagger march that has invaded gov. and now the Court system. I'm planning to leave, eventually, there is no question about that anymore. I know other people with similar ideas to get out. I'm afraid this well might effect whole regions of the country as these divisions continue to be fed to the populace ... and people gravitate for education and employment in areas to their liking.

We have the judge in Texas advocating civil war if Obama is reelected ... and now I've heard RW talk hosts hinting at civil war. Just how far do these fools plan to try and rip this country apart. And what then is the end result, some theocratic dystopia with people riding around with guns mounted in the pack of their pickup trucks ...

IMO this country is being pushed by the contrived divisions into some pretty dreadful territory.

[Trillo]

4. Far too much zero tolerance.

It's taught in some homes and in most all schools, since at least the late 1960s.

Too many bills. Not enough income. SQUEEZE.

Too many lies told by soft spoken authoritarians wearing suits on power trips and smiling ear to ear the whole time flashing their canines.

Too much punishment, too much responsibility, too few rewards.

[RKP5637]

7. Your last sentence sure does sum up this hatred well. n/t

[tama]

8. Basic and simple

1) Hatred arises from fear.

2) Fear arises from love transformed into possessive attachment. Fear of losing what you love.

3) Love is the natural state and basis of all being.

3½) America is currently the nation in the world most possessed by it's possessions, so most fearful nation of losing what it believes it owns, therefore so much hatred.

[hfojvt]

9. Why do you think all of the hate is coming from the right?

Is there no hatred on or from the left?

If so, why is there so much of that?

In some ways, I think it is a selection bias.

Consider a discussion board like this. Often there seem to be many heated arguments with a fair amount of hateful comments. And there would no doubt be many more such hateful comments if not for moderators (or now juries).

So when it seems like 70% of the replies you get are like that, or degenerate into that, it seems like there is a lot of hate.

However, that perception is partly because it is mostly the angry people who will respond.

But of every 100 people who read a post, there will be a variety of responses.

1. some will agree
2. some will partly agree
3. some will largely, but calmly disagree
4. some will fiercely disagree

Yet, it is that last group which is more likely to hit reply and give you a piece of their mind. Even this odious thread with its 80+ hateful replies, has over 2000 views. Well, that could mean that there are many people who disagree with the haters, but don't feel like getting into a battle. Especially since telling the OP what a jerk he was, would be against the rules, much like my call out here also is. But how else can it be discussed? http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=1207039

[RKP5637]

12. Very interesting! I saw your post about the time you posted it, all of your reasoning above

is quite valid IMO. I can't recall the exact statistics now, but I was reading about product complaints ... basically it went, many satisfied people with a product don't provide feedback, but often angry customers do, so product feedback often has a negative bias.

[liberal_at_heart]

27. I agree with you

I am not going to agree with everyone on this board 100% of the time. There has to be room for different ideas and different opinions. There are those in every group of people who want control and power and the left is no different. There are those on the left who want the power and the control and will not allow for anything that they do not approve first.

[FLyellowdog]

10. Overwhelming fear

that they (whoever "they" are) will take from us that which we already have or want to have (whatever "that" is).

There is a mentality that everyone else is out to get us...can you spell "paranoia"?
And that no one can be trusted. The truth is that some people can't be trusted, but most people can be.

Then to top it all off, those who are afraid feel the necessity to make others afraid. It's at a mass hysteria level nowadays.

[RKP5637]

13. Good points ... I think the paranoia in this country is very high these days, that's

what the messaging is by a lot of the hatred flying around.

[Fla_Democrat]

14. Them

[RKP5637]

17. That was simple! Yep!!! n/t

[KT2000]

15. when reagan was elected

Roselyn Carter said the he made people comfortable with their prejudices.
I think she is right. He opened Pandora's box after a time when people were working hard to change the status quo or at least keep their mouth shut if they held on to their prejudices.
It has been escalation since then to the point now where we have 24/7 agitators of hate on all media.
What people once tried to hide, they now revel in it and find community with so many other haters - through media, esp. the internet.
They now have an openly racist, misogynistic, bigoted political party and it is now out in the open as if it is "American values."

[RKP5637]

16. Excellent summary of it all!!! I did not know Roselyn Carter had said that about Reagan, but

she was certainly spot on! That, is when I recall open prejudices becoming acceptable and worn by some as a badge of honor.

[REP]

18. US Foreign policy

Thats what I hear from friends who have moved here from other countries. And it's not so much hate for the US - they love our clothes, music, movies, food, even Americans - but they really don't like US foreign policy.

[RKP5637]

31. Yep, US Foreign policy has been bad for decades and at times completely deplorable. n/t

[Jamaal510]

19. I know we have the 1st Amendment,

but I still think this country should adopt a law like Canada's where it's illegal to lie on broadcast news. You see that Fox News has been among the top-rated networks in America, and they are notorious for being a RW propaganda center full of misinformation. Not everyone has great critical thinking skills, and will blindly believe whatever they hear from Fox, Rush, Alex Jones, etc. while being told to distrust everyone else.

I also would agree with RKP5637's point about over-the-top capitalism being a factor. This fosters a self-centered mindset of "to Hell with everybody else; I've got mine." We have conservative billionaires who would dump piles of cheese towards swaying public opinion in order to elect politicians that will give them more tax breaks (I'm looking at you, Sheldon). They would rather do this than pay slightly extra in taxes so that we can have better roads, better health care, better education, and so that the poverty rate will lower. It's evil and downright sick of them to get working-class people to vote against their interests like that. It's why we also must get money out of politics pronto, and have all elections publicly-funded.

[RKP5637]

21. I agree sooo much with you. The outright bold lies should somehow be stopped from

broadcasting over huge megaphones on broadcast news. I occasionally listen to Fox, Rush, Alex Jones, etc. and frankly, IMO, they are a subversive force working to take the nation down. The crap they spew is unbelievable.

They are bold distortions and IMO with the intent to dismantle the US preaching hatred and distortions. It's one thing to present an alternative viewpoint, but IMO quite another to orchestrate outright lies and distortions, broadcasting that to often a low information audience.

[liberal_at_heart]

24. control and power

Every group of people want to be the ones with the power and control.

[pampango]

25. Largely the result of the 1%'s strategy of divide-and-conquer against the 99%.

If you can get the 99% fighting and hating each other over "guns and bibles", there is much less danger to the 1% from an organized and unified middle class.

[Aeroette]

34. I think you've hit the nail on the head.

[DonRedwood]

26. fox news and right wing media moguls

they have been hammering their anti-dem anti-gov message so long they have brainwashed people into believing their repetative lying.

[RKP5637]

28. Yep, that's a lot of it ... as one of my lawyer friends once told me, in law school on about

day one, you're told in a court case if you repeat even the wrong information over and over again, many people will come to believe it, right or wrong. Yep, that's what we see by "fox news and right wing media moguls," is basically the brainwashing of a fair number of Americans. Their hammering is relentless.

[MadHound]

29. Because it is all part of the plan,

Divide and conquer, a plan that has been with us in some form or another for over three hundred years now. Keep the masses divided against themselves, over race, over religion, over whatever the social issue du jour is, the point has always been to keep the masses divided and at war amongst themselves so that they don't turn on their real enemy, the economic and power elite.

[RKP5637]

30. Well said!!! n/t

[former-republican]

32. The man with the gun in the room has control.

It's not a complicated issue why we have hate in this country.

[belcffub]

33. lack of empathy from just about everyone...

I think most people are basically good... if you start there it becomes easier to not be burdened by hate...

[porphyrian]

36. Is there more in America than other places?

I can't say for sure, since the only time I've set foot off of American soil was a vacation in British Columbia, but I think that maybe a perception of excessive amounts of hate here is created by, as you suggest, the all-day, every-day assault of competing media corporations vying for your attention with extremist spectacle.

If you turn off the TV/radio/Internet for a week, do you still have the same impression?

Do people in other countries feel the same way about us? About their own country?

I don't know, I'm asking.

[RKP5637]

37. The way they vote in this state, for example, there certainly seems to be a lot of hatred for

moderation. What I think is going on is "the all-day, every-day assault of competing media corporations vying for your attention with extremist spectacle" is making people more hateful and intolerant of any differing views.